A CHINESE satellite has reportedly spotted images which may be the crash site of missing Flight MH370.

According to CNN, the satellite "observed a suspected crash area" in waters northeast of where the plane took off in Kuala Lumpur and south of Vietnam.

The discovery was announced by China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. It includes images of what it said were "three suspected floating objects and their sizes" that were captured on March 9 - the day after the Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 239 people went missing.

The discovered objects do not appear to be small - measuring 13 by 18 metres, 14 by 19 metres and 24 by 22 metres.

There has been no confirmation it is the actual crash site but Peter Goelz, the former managing director of the US National Transportation Safety Board, said the location was consistent with the correct flight path.

"These (images) are the first solid piece of evidence we have that are on the correct flight path," he told CNN.

The news came after Malaysian police were forced to dismiss claims that they doctored photographs of two Iranians who boarded the plane with stolen passports - saying one man's legs were spliced over the other's in a photocopying error.

The missteps have Malaysians and many around the world asking who is in charge of actually finding MH370 and the truth about what happened.

Spotted ... the suspected crash site found by a satellite.Source: Supplied

Revelations that two passengers on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 jet were travelling on stolen EU passports fuelled fears of a terrorist attack after it vanished with 239 passengers and crew on board on Saturday.

Police on Tuesday released photographs of the two men - now believed to be illegal immigrants with no apparent links to extremist groups - but the lower halves of the images were identical.

Interpol identified the Iranian pair as Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, who used a stolen Italian passport, and Pouria Nour Mohammad, who used an Austrian one.

Both passports had been stolen in Thailand.

Spot the difference ... Pouria Nour Mohammad, using an Austrian passport, and Seyed Mohammed Reza Delavar, using an Italian passport both appear to have the same lower body.Source: Getty Images

Authorities have said they believe the Iranian pair were illegal immigrants who were on their way to Europe via Beijing.

Social media users who saw the photos suggested they may have been intentionally doctored.

"Why did they try to photoshop the legs on the released photo of the Iranians?'' one user asked.

"Photoshop failed! same legs on those pics. are they for real??'' another posted.

But police spokeswoman Asmawati Ahmad said the odd appearance of the photos stemmed from a police staff member placing one on top of the other when photocopying them.

"It was not done with malice or to mislead,'' she said.

She said this had been explained to some news photographers when the photos were handed out.

Search steps up for missing flight MH370
1:39

The search for the missing MH370 flight has been expanded to two areas, five days after the jet disappeared.

Sky News

12 Mar 2014

News

The error fuelled criticism of Malaysian authorities, who are accused of blundering and making contradictory statements since the plane went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early Saturday.

Those blunders include Malaysia's air force chief denying a report which quoted him saying the jet had been detected by military radar far off course, revelations that the co-pilot on MH370 had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago, and a lack of information being provided to families with loved ones missing.

Waiting in hope ... students in China pray for the passengers.Source: Getty Images

WIDENED SEARCH CONTINUES

Malaysian authorities meanwhile expanded the search zone for MH370 and are now combing 27,000 square nautical miles (93,000 square kms) in two areas as the desperate search to find the missing airliner enters its sixth day.

The search zone is now focusing on two areas - the Malacca Strait and the South China Sea - as authorities admit they still have little idea where the aircraft went in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Military chiefs said it is still only a "possibility" that MH370 was the aircraft plotted on military radar at 2.15am on Saturday, flying 322 kilometres northwest of Penang, on Malaysia's western peninsula.

The chief of Malaysia's air force General Tan Sri Rozali Daud said authorities were currently attempting to corroborate this with other civil radar and with the help from other countries.

The plane disappeared from civilian radar at 1.30am with no distress call or any signal and nothing has been heard from it since.

The search of 12,425 square nautical miles of Malacca Strait is based on the possibility that the unidentified plane on the military radar was MH370 and that it had inexplicably gone hundreds of kilometres off course.

However authorities continue to search 14,440 square nautical miles in the South China Sea, around the area where the aircraft was last heard from shortly before it crossed into Vietnamese air space.

The search is now concentrated on both sides of Malaysia.

Malaysia's Transport and Defence Minister Hissammuddin Hussein promised "we will do whatever it takes to find it" and denied there had been confusion and chaos in the past five days in the bid to find the missing plane.

Under pressure ... Malaysia's officials are facing a barrage of questions.Source: AP

He said the reason for two search zones was because there was still no certainty where the plane had gone after its last known contact with the air traffic control and before it dropped off civil radar at 1.30am.

"Today we are still not sure it is the same aircraft (tracked on military radar). That's why we are searching in two areas. That's why we are deploying all our aircraft and vessels in these two areas. If we know for sure it is in the Malacca Strait we would have moved all our assets there," Mr Hussein said.

There are now 42 ships and 39 aircraft involved in the search from 12 countries.

"We will never give up hope, this we owe to the families," he said.

"We will do whatever it takes to find it."

"My heart reaches out to the families of the passengers and crew and I give you my assurance that I will not reduce the tempo and I will not spare any effort to find the missing plane."

The Malaysian Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said he would need to check records to be sure about whether this particular plane was checked in accordance with a Boeing safety directive issued in November last year about possible fuselage cracks.

But he said as a general policy his airline complied with all safety directives from Boeing.

MALAYSIANS SAY SEARCH EFFORT IS AN EMBARRASSMENT

The comments were little comfort for Malaysians who are fast losing patience with the fruitless search effort, saying it was a national embarrassment and demanding to know who would take responsibility.

With the world watching, the mood in the Southeast Asian nation was rapidly turning to anger at a torrent of misinformation, missteps and contradictions from the flag carrier and officials who appeared no closer to solving the mystery.

"It's world news, hello! Who is in charge here?,'' said Yvonne Ho, 42, an event organiser from the eastern state of Pahang.

"The mood among Malaysians now is moving from patience in the search for the 239 people aboard the missing flight MH370 to embarrassment and anger,'' local news website Malaysian Insider said in a commentary.

"The whole world is watching Malaysia now because an aircraft with a wingspan of 61 metres (200 feet) does not fall off the sky or disappear into thin air just like that.''

As rumours swirled in the absence of concrete information, others pointed to more sinister theories, darkly suggesting a cover-up by authorities.

"I'm upset that even with the effort of our country and a few other countries, that ... not a single piece of the flight has shown up or been made public by Malaysia Airlines,'' said Syed Faris Hakem, 26, a Kuala Lumpur office worker.

"I personally think that they might be covering it up but not sure what's the reason behind it. This is all due to the lack of and contradicting information,'' he said.

Discrepancies include conflicting information about the number and ethnicities of people who used stolen passports to board the plane, and whether some passengers booked on the flight had failed to board.

Freddie Wang, a 53-year-old property consultant, said he was disappointed with the "sloppy and incompetent'' manner in which investigations were being carried out.

"The officials seem to be arrogant and show little empathy towards victims' families,'' he said.

Malaysia's highly active social media sites have crackled with sympathetic expressions of concern and hope for the safety of the missing passengers and crew - which include 38 Malaysians.

But with the mood beginning to turn, the latest confusing report regarding the search added to mounting frustration.

Backtracking ... RMAF chief General Rodzali Daud.Source: AP

Malaysia's air force chief General Rodzali Daud denied an earlier report which quoted him as saying the jet had been detected by military radar far from its planned flight path.

He said he was misquoted, but it followed a string of contradictory statements that have called into question Malaysian authorities' grasp of the situation.

For the plane to go missing is bad enough, "but then for the responsible country's government and aviation agencies to handle the associated information with total incompetence is unforgivable'', David Learmount, operations and safety editor at industry magazine Flightglobal, wrote.

Senior Malaysian opposition figure Lim Kit Siang has also questioned why senior ministers were not more quickly informed about the missing plane.

"There are many questions about crisis management - for instance, why the prime minister and the acting transport minister were not informed immediately when the MH370 ... went missing, as they only knew about it several crucial hours later,'' he said in a statement Sunday.

There was also some unwanted embarrassment when the transport ministry was forced to clarify comments by Malaysia's civil aviation chief, in which he referred to black Italian footballer Mario Balotelli when discussing two suspect passengers on the jet.

"In the absence of literally any information about the fate of the Malaysia Airlines plane it would be astonishing if there were not major criticism of the airline from the families,'' said Peter Hirsch, US-based director of reputation risk for Ogilvy Public Relations.

"On balance, the airline seems to be doing what it can.''

Authorities will "almost inevitably'' make mistakes in their communication, said aviation crisis management expert John Bailey.

"When was the last time that any of these individuals were involved in something on this scale? They quite possibly have not undergone training in what to expect and what to focus on.''

"The real communication challenge for the airline and for all the other parties involved with this is dealing with the families. Managing their expectations over what's going to happen next - those are very difficult conversations to have,'' said Bailey, who runs a Singapore-based PR consultancy.